Editing Nuer language (section)

== Nominal inflection ==
Nuer nouns inflect for two [[grammatical number|numbers]], singular and plural, and three [[grammatical case|cases]], nominative, genitive and locative.<ref name="BaermanMorich2021">{{cite journal|last1=Baerman|first1=Matthew|last2=Monich|first2=Irina|date=2021|title=Paradigmatic saturation in Nuer|url=https://www.lsadc.org/Files/Language/Language%202021/97.3_e10Baerman.pdf|journal=Language|volume=97|issue=3|pages=e257–e275|access-date=2024-09-15}}</ref> At first glance the inflection is wholly non-systematic and resists description in terms of [[Morphology (linguistics)#Paradigms and morphosyntax|paradigms]]: just two suffixes {{ipa|/-kʌ̤/}} and {{ipa|/-ni̤/}} are used in sixteen different patterns across the stock of nouns, together with different selections from around sixty stem [[alternation (linguistics)|alternation]]s,<ref>{{cite thesis|last=Frank|first=Wright J.|date=1999|title=Nuer noun morphology|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111223013406/http://wings.buffalo.edu/linguistics/people/students/ma_theses/wright/fwrightmathesis.pdf|degree=MA|publisher=State University of New York at Buffalo}}</ref> a situation that Baerman called "paradigmatic chaos".<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Baerman|first1=Matthew|date=2012|title=Paradigmatic chaos in Nuer|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/23251861.pdf|journal=Language|volume=88|issue=3|pages=467–494|doi=10.1353/lan.2012.0065|access-date=2024-09-15}}</ref> Further research has identified more constraints and regularities governing Nuer nominal inflection.<ref name="BaermanMorich2021"/>

There are various methods of plural noun formation in the Nuer language. Generally speaking, plural nouns are formed from singular nouns with the addition of plural markings, and tone changes. Countable nouns, collective nouns, and mass nouns take markings to show a singular state. This means that every noun in the Nuer language can potentially appear in a singular or plural form. Loan words also follow this process.<ref name="doi.org">Number marking in Nuer nouns, John Koang Nyang, Addis Ababa University, https://doi.org/10.1075/impact.48.09nya</ref>

The most readily identifiable plural formation processes are: suffixation, vowel insertion, phonation, vowel quality change, final consonant alteration, vowel deletion, glide insertion, tone change, vowel lengthening, vowel shortening, suppletion, and zero or null formation, among other processes when the entire language is taken into account.<ref name="doi.org"/>

The most basic plural suffix is the suffix -ni̱. This suffix is used after words that end in sounds other than [l] and [r]. Words that end in [l] and [r] take the suffix -i̱. However, apart from this suffix there are other methods to form plural nouns.<ref name="doi.org"/>